SLO firefighter’s alleged victim’s injuries described

September 19, 2012

The man who suffered severe facial injuries during an altercation with a San Luis Obispo firefighter in June 2011, likely received four to five high force blows to the face, an oral surgeon testified on Tuesday.

John Ryan Mason is on trial facing charges of felony assault for allegedly beating Jory Brigham unconscious in a bathroom at Pappy McGregor’s.

PDr. Eric Alltucker, the surgeon who operated on Brigham, testified that Brigham had “four to five areas of known trauma.” While Alltucker said the fractures to Brigham’s face could have very well been caused by punches or elbows, he also said it would have been possible for the damage to occur by Brigham falling on his face in a very specific manner.

Following Alltucker’s testimony, a San Luis Obispo County investigator testified that Mason spent approximately six minutes in the Pappy McGregor’s bathroom the night he allegedly assaulted Jory Brigham, longer than stated in previous testimony.

District attorney investigator Scott Odom said he reviewed the Pappy McGregor‘s surveillance video from the night of June 4, 2011 and determined that Mason entered the restroom at 11:26 pm and exited at 11:32 pm. After leaving the restroom, Mason immediately walked out of the bar along side a female and another couple, Odom, a former sheriff’s deputy, said.

“The party left without dallying,” Odom said.

Though Odom said he was certain that the man in the footage walking in and out of the bathroom was indeed Mason, the district attorney investigator said he could not identify Brigham in any of the video tapes. Odom also said that the quality of the surveillance video was poor and grainy.

7 Comments

I want to again point out that Mason–at the time a SLOCity firefighter–ran away from his beat-down of Brigham, leaving Brigham bleeding on the floor, without even bothering to get another first-responder to administer care to Brigham.

Mason is a bully and a coward, and he is a horrible reflection on the SLOCity FD which not only employed him, but did nothing to bring him in for questioning for at least 5 days following Mason’s assault on Brigham.

This gave Mason plenty of time to destroy evidence, and to meet with city and union attorneys, as well as union reps and his FD superiors, to get his story straight.

The “poor grainy quality of the video” excuse coming from a DA is the elementary-school equivalent of “my dog ate my homework.”

If the DA’s office is so inept that it cannot even do something so very, very basic, such as finding a technician with sufficient skill to improve the quality of the video, then the DA needs to be fired.

” While Alltucker said the fractures to Brigham’s face COULD HAVE have very well been caused by punches or elbows, he also said it WOULD HAVE been possible for the damage to occur by Brigham falling on his face in a very specific manner…”

Oh crud. Is THIS statement going to be the “out” that Mason & his lawyer need to avoid prison? I hope not. Mason’s a bully with a pattern of violence. He needs to be locked up. Look at the pictures and read CCN’s past articles dating back to June ’11. Brigham did NOT fall “in a very specific manner”; he got the $hit beat out of him. The only fall he took was when Mason knocked him to the ground!

I kept hoping Mason would go for the “not-builty-by-reason-of-insanity” route. It seems perfect for him: cowardly.

Then he could have been kept at someplace nice like Patterson, where his stay would be indefinite, and he would be locked up with his peers: violent psychopaths.

But I guess Mason has been sufficiently convinced that he will get a free pass on his violent assault on Brigham, such that Mason is willing to go through the humiliation of the trial.

No wonder the DA, with all of the resources available to the DA’s office, insists the security video was too poor and grainy to show much.

Who knows what would be revealed on the video if a competent forensic video technician had a crack at cleaning it up.

BTW, what about the ubiquitous security cams that also show the bar during the period of time before, during and after the Mason assault on Brigham? Anything interesting on them? Did Mason consult with any other members of the SLOFD while he was running away from his beatdown on Brigham?

Not to sound nit picky BUT I have to comment again on something I’ve mentioned in the past. The comment about the surveilance video being poor and grainy. We see this comment ALOT in the news when people go back to surveliance camera video. Now I understand lighting can affect film quailty but there is high speed film you can use to help this. Also in the age of digital? REALLY?

I know that one factor could be a cheaper system but then if that is the case why bother. If all you get are maybe images that might not help, that isn’t much better than if you had nothing at all. If they are using these systems to protect themselves in case of a robbery and you can’t identify a suspect, then…………………